Sirenia crypticus

On Labor Day last week, Beth and I walked down to Sandogardy Pond in the pouring rain. I was in my rain gear, but Beth was not. She had already been playing outside in the rain, and I didn’t think she could possibly get any wetter. Penny came along too, and she didn’t mind the rain at all.

Unsurprisingly, the beach at the pond was abandoned. One of the first creatures I saw was this Sirenia crypticus (Or so I name it).

Sirenia crypticus

OK, that’s not really nature as I promised in my last post. But it should help us ease back into it.

Then on Friday I took a walk around my property. The weather was decidedly more clear, and I came away with some interesting shots. Here’s a mushroom (possibly some sort of chantrelle):

Inverted Mushroom

I liked the way the gills stood out on this one. I’ve been shooting a lot of mushrooms lately, as we seem to have them in spades. Also, there are not many flowers left (other than those in the Asterid family), so the mushrooms make an irresistible subject. I had Penny along while I was shooting, and she managed to kick me the ball just as I was taking this shot:

Penny, her ball, and an agaric

I usually manage to keep Penny out of my backgrounds, but when I looked at the composition of this one, I purposely framed her into the shot. The ball rolling by was a bonus.

Out at the end of my driveway by the road is a small stand of wild woodland sunflowers.

Woodland Sunflowers (Helianthus divaricatus)

I have to be careful with these, as they are coming up smack dab in the middle of a patch of poison ivy. I haven’t done anything about the poison ivy though, because I don’t think I can eliminate it without eliminating my sunflowers as well.

Incidentally, Beth managed to get into some poison ivy week, as she has a small affected area on her right wrist. I expect she got that in the woods though, where she and the neighbors have been playing in the canopy of a fallen tree.

David, Beth, and I went down to Sandogardy yesterday too, but I’ll save those pics for another day.

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4 Responses to “Sirenia crypticus”

Thanks Terry. That shot turned out way better than I expected it to. I thought I’d try staging it a second time in case this shot didn’t come out, but it was impossible. Penny didn’t mind staying put at all, and neither did the mushroom. But I was not able to throw her the ball while manning the shutter. She was too quick for that! Not to mention that Penny has absolutely no compunction about toppling a mushroom I’m trying to photograph by running over it or flattening it with a soccer ball. She has ruined a fair number of shots that way. But she did good this time.

She always has to have SOMETHING in her mouth when she’s working. She prefers a stick (as in this photo), but if she can’t find one, she’ll use whatever she can find – even a leaf will do in a pinch. I have seen her cram five sticks in her mouth at once before, and she’ll drop one of them for me to throw. But usually, she carries only one during the chase.

In the house she has a hierarchy of toys. She wants us to throw her favorite, and her next favorite goes in the mouth. If she’s using two toys farther down the hierarchy and spots one she likes better, she will switch them out in a hurry.